Winter Olympics Prove Financial Headache for Some, Party for Others

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PYEONGCHANG, South Korea—Kwon Young-man was thrilled when he learned that the Olympic mogul and halfpipe events would take place at the ski resort across the street from his ski-rental shop. The influx of fans, athletes and officials would mean a windfall, he reasoned—but not because he thought anyone was going to rent gear.

Instead, he closed his rental business and converted it into a bar, Nuts Pub, last year, figuring that booze was the path to a Games bonanza. On a good night, the 34-year-old says, his takings are $10,000 to $20,000. The best-selling items: Fireball Cinnamon whiskey, Jack Daniel’s—he charges $130 a bottle—and Jameson.

Last fall, he researched his new trade by spending nights barhopping in Seoul’s Itaewon party district. “I would walk in, sit down in front of the bartender and start ordering the most popular drinks, and bug the bartenders on the very tiny details of proper cocktailing,” he said.

The Olympics haven’t proved as bountiful for those who stayed in the winter-sports rental business. Mr. Kwon’s erstwhile competitors—there are 22 remaining ski-rental shops in Pyeongchang—say the Games have cost them much of their annual income.

These shop owners say they are struggling because the resort, Phoenix Snow Park, barred guest bookings from late January to early March, coinciding with the Olympics and Paralympics, as the rooms were reserved for Olympic officials—who aren’t there to ski or snowboard. A Phoenix spokesman said it wanted to help make the Games a success and that it would provide better service next year when it reopens to the public.

Fewer people skiing means fewer people renting equipment, said Im Jae-yong, who owns the Alpine Ski shop adjacent to Mr. Kwon’s pub and heads a recently formed association of winter-sport rental shops. The rental businesses’ sales are 75% lower on average than last season, he said.

At Mr. Im’s shop, winter-sports equipment is stacked neatly where it was left at the end of last season. Two other rental businesses have signs on the door saying they are closed for the year.

“We make almost all of our yearly income during the ski season,” Mr. Im said. He is leading rental-shop owners in street protests outside the Phoenix resort, the local provincial-government office and at Seoul’s presidential Blue House, asking for compensation.

Other business owners blame disappointing takings on temporary traffic measures, including a requirement that vehicles alternate their days on the road based on their license plates. They also blame advisory notices the provincial government sent to restaurant owners urging them not to raise prices during the Games.

Officials defend the Games’ economic dividend. Overall, business in the Olympic towns appears to be steady, said Ahn Sung-bae, chief of staff to Choi Moon-soon, the governor of Gangwon Province, which includes Pyeongchang and Gangneung.

The province’s nominal economic output was about $38 billion in 2016, official data show; the Games would add roughly $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion to this year’s figure, Mr. Ahn said. But he acknowledged the problems facing the ski-rental enterprises.

The rental shops tried lobbying the provincial government to allow them to sell Games merchandise, the owners and Mr. Ahn said. The government rejected that idea because a South Korean conglomerate, Lotte Shopping , already held those rights. Officials then offered to search for ways to provide the shops with cheap loans, but the shop owners declined, Mr. Ahn said.

While some businesses suffer, others are cashing in. At Oppa Dak, a barbecue-chicken joint in Gangneung, daily sales are more than $3,000, five to six times that before the Games, according to owner Lee Kyeong-hoon. The owner of a nearby Paris Baguette bakery, a South Korean franchise, said her daily takings are 10 times what they were before the Games, thanks to the thousands of journalists, athletes and coaches visiting. Taxi drivers say they are working extra hours, in some cases all-nighters.

Meanwhile, the Nuts Pub is doing a roaring trade catering to the cosmopolitan Olympic crowd, as is another bar Mr. Kwon set up near the athletes’ village in Gangneung. He said he doesn’t have sympathy for his former competitors in the rental business, though he wishes them the best.

“I took a big risk by spending millions of won setting up a kitchen, buying tables and liquor in preparation for the Olympics,” he said.

Mr. Kwon is already setting his sights on life after the Olympics, which end Sunday.

“I’m thinking about selling the pub near the athletes’ village,” he said. “Sales are going to fall after the Winter Games. Time to leave.”